The first feature film by director Shane Acker, based on his animation short of the same name, 9 delves into a post-apocalyptic world where a small group of little ragdoll people are the only living things that remain. For a first time venture with a feature, Acker’s CG animated film (never a thrifty undertaking) has received powerful backing and confidence from Tim Burton (Sleepy Hollow, Edward Scissorhands) and Timur Bekmambetov (Night Watch, Wanted), who serve as the film’s producers.

The film opens with a bleak refrain as a scientist assembles the movie’s titular hero, 9 (Elijah Wood), telling the audience with a resigned finality that humanity’s world is over. But life must continue nevertheless, and so it does as the rag doll 9 wakes to a strange and silent world; a devastated industrial landscape that seems torn right out of a World War II documentary. Almost immediately 9 is confronted by disturbing imagery and grisly reminders of war; the bodies of a woman and child slumped over in a ruined car; a bullet, almost as large as 9 himself; a world seemingly devoid of any life.

Before long, however, 9 encounters other rag dolls, a small and fearful community led by the patriarchal 1 (Christopher Plummer). 9 is neither welcomed or embraced however, as his constant questions and desire to act see him clash with 1, whose impulse above all else is to survive. The rag dolls, as few as they are, are quickly revealed to be at odds with themselves. It is a dysfunctional group, plagued by suspicion, authoritarianism, exile and even murder. 9, who seems to be driven by courage, embarks to save 2 (Martin Landau), and in doing so inadvertently wakes The Machine, the invention responsible for humanity’s downfall.

As 9 tries to undo his mistake, he is eventually joined by the rest of the dolls as they band together to survive, including the adventurous 7 (Jennifer Connelly), one-eyed 5 (John C. Reilly), prophetic 6 (Crispin Glover), burly bodyguard 8 (Fred Tatasciore), and the archivist twins 3 and 4. The rag dolls embody primal human traits; fear; curiosity; inventiveness; courage. What first appears to be purely metaphorical later reveals itself to be cleverly woven into the story, as the rag dolls discover their connection to their maker. The rag dolls themselves are fantastically imagined and brought to life by Acker, woven little people with buttons and zips and clockwork parts, each one uniquely crafted as a physical manifestation of their personality.

9 is a swiftly paced film, a blend of suspense and action that flows around the characters’ quest to survive and save each other. Acker skilfully captures the sense of scale the rag dolls face as little things in the giant’s world they have inherited, and the sheer menace of being hunted by the bestial machines that prowl the landscape. It is interesting that while the rag dolls are thoroughly humanoid in shape and human in character, the explicitly soulless machines are all savagely animalistic in one form or another – a cat, a bat, a snake, and so on.

The slick action and menacing suspense scenes are punctuated by moments of haunting poignancy where the camera lingers on iconic imagery – flames consuming the church that has served as home for the rag dolls as they march away into the urban ruins; the pope-esque 1 perched on his makeshift throne, wrapped up in the certainty of his moral authority as leader; the human fascist dictator sending armies off to war and conquest in an old video reel – that sticks in your mind long after the credits have rolled.

While the narrative is very simple, and were the film purely an action affair, it would have been a visually impressive but ultimately hollow experience. The real strength of the movie lies in the darker themes it touches upon: human arrogance, fascism, the exploitation of science, life’s struggle to survive. The rag dolls do not all survive, and those that do still face a desolate world ruined by those who came before. The end, although hopeful, still left me with an unsettling feeling of bleakness and fatalism. In 9, rebirth does exist in the rag dolls brought to life, but humanity as it existed is well and truly gone.

The world of 9 is a dark one in every sense of the word, perhaps unusually so for what seems at first appearance to be an animated film for children. But it is this gloomy quality, always present in some form or another, that makes 9 such a refreshing and curiously compelling film.

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